This chapter explains the way in which a program, and the input information it uses are prepared for running on Atlas.
Each run of a program on Atlas is known as a job; it may range from a small job, for which there is no data outside the program itself, to a large job requiring several batches of data, possibly arriving on different media, e.g. punched cards and paper tape.
The various parts of a job may be submitted separately to the computer each on one deck of cards or length of paper tape, or two or more parts may be combined on a single deck or tape. In any case each part must be properly identified for the computer and for this purpose the concept of a 'document' has been introduced.
A document is a self-contained section of information presented continuously to the computer through one input channel (but see also 10.10.3). Typical examples of a document are a collection of data on a length of paper tape or the program itself.
Each document carries at its head suitable identifying information as detailed in 10.3.1. The end of a document is indicated by an end of document marker which usually consists of the characters ***Z on a new line or a 7, 8 punching in the first column of a new card which follows the last record of information of the document.
By means of the identifying information the Supervisor prepares a list of documents as they are accepted in the store and it also keeps a list of jobs for which further documents are awaited. A job may require several documents and only when all these have been supplied can execution begin. The Supervisor therefore checks the appearance of each document; when all have been entered work on the job may commence. Documents for a job may thus be fed to the computer in any order.
Every document is preceded by the identifying information mentioned above. This consists of a heading and the title of the document.
The heading indicates which type of document follows and must be one of a standard list. The most common types of heading are as follows:-
COMPILER (which is followed on the same line or card, after one or more spaces, by the name of a program language). The document following this heading is a program in the stated language. Available languages include Atlas Basic Language (ABL), Extended Mercury Autocode (EMA), ALGOL and HARTRAN (for Fortran).
For an Atlas Basic Language Program the heading will be
COMPILER ABL
The last type of document is called a job description. It gives, for example, a list of all other documents required for the job and a list of output streams the program will produce. It is described in detail in sections 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 below.
The title of a document consists of one line (or one punched card) immediately following the heading. It may be composed of any combination of characters obeying the rules of section 10.3.3 below. The prime consideration is, however, that it should be unique among all the documents stored in the computer at the same time. This is obviously made essential by the timesharing facilities of Atlas, to avoid confusion between documents intended for different jobs.
A document will thus usually take one of three forms exemplified by the following, the second line of each document being its title:-
JOB F6479,SMITH;I.C.T. ----- ----- (Job Description) ----- ----- ***Z Job Description |
COMPILER ABL F1, SURVEY PROGRAM ----- ----- (Program) ----- ----- ***Z Program Document |
DATA F6479 BEETLE SURVEY ----- ----- (Data) ----- ----- ***Z Data Document |
Besides being unique document titles must obey the following rules:-
Furthermore:
The characters of a title are read in and stored in Supervisor records in Atlas internal code in the normal way, but the shift characters, 04, 05, 06, 07 are subsequently removed. This means for example that on the Flexowriter the titles
[ Tape ]
and
1 TAPE 3
are identical. For the same reason a length of run-out appearing on tape in the midst of a title would not become part of the title.
Documents used in the same job need not have related titles.
The job title itself normally contains the name and abbreviated address for the return of the results, but this is not necessary in the title of data and program documents.
If necessary, the title of a data document or job description (but not a program document) may be on the same line, or card, as the heading, provided sufficient room remains to accommodate all the title on that line or card. In this case the heading and title must be separated by comma, space (one or more), or tab.
After the heading and title a job description is divided into various sections each one describing a particular aspect of the job, e.g. input documents, store used and so on. These sections may be assembled in any order and are dealt with individually below in sections 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8.
This section begins with the word
INPUT
which is followed by the titles of the data documents used in the job, each preceded by the number by which the program refers to them. These numbers must be in the range 0 to 15. The program document itself usually is given number 0, but is in fact always taken to be the lowest numbered data document. Thus, if a program operates on two data documents which it refers to as inputs one and two respectively, the job description would contain
INPUT 0 (Title of Program) 1 (Title of Data 1) 2 (Title of Data 2)
To take a concrete example:-
INPUT 0 F1, SURVEY PROGRAM 1 F6479/2 BEETLE SURVEY DATA/62 2 F6479 BEETLE POPULATION 1961
The data document F6479/2 BEETLE SURVEY DATA/62 could then be selected by the programmer by the instruction
1050 0 0 1
Data may be placed on the same tape as the program, where it becomes a part of the lowest numbered input stream. With an ABL program such data must come between the enter directive and the end of document marker that terminated the program stream. If the 1050 extracode is not used to select a given input stream, the lowest numbered stream is assumed and one obtains the data which followed the program.
The input section may also contain a reference to a magnetic tape on which an especially large document has previously been stored. This way of handling large amounts of input is explained in section 10.12.1.
This section of the job description specifies the type of peripheral to be used for output. Possible types of equipment are:-
LINE PRINTER SEVEN HOLE PUNCH CARDS FIVE HOLE PUNCH ANY TAPE
Here CARDS means the card punch. Each Atlas installation will specify which types of equipment may be used for output ANY e.g. ANY may produce output on LINE PRINTER or SEVEN HOLE PUNCH. TAPE is used when a private magnetic tape is called for to hold an especially large amount of output (see 10.12.4).
The output section begins with the word
OUTPUT
which is followed by a list of output mechanisms, each preceded by a programmer's number in the range 0 to 15. For example one might have
OUTPUT 2 ANY 1 CARDS 0 LINE PRINTER
In this case, in order to send output to the card punch, the programmer would first have to select this form of output by the instruction
1060 0 0 1
A request will be made to the operator to mount special stationery for a given output stream if an asterisk is placed in front of the word LINE PRINTER. Thus if output stream 3 is to be printed on special stationery, the output section should contain
*LINE PRINTER m LINES
The type of equipment should normally be followed by a limit on the amount of output, specified as so many lines. One line is the output produced by one use of the 1065 (end current record) or the 1067 (output one record) extracodes. Thus one line means one printed or blank line on 5 or 7 track tape and on the line printer, or one punched card. One writes
OUTPUT 0 LINE PRINTER m LINES
The maximum amount of output may also be specified as n BLOCKS. A block contains 4096 characters. The number of characters allowed for must in general be larger than the number actually printed or punched. On the average each line output to punched paper tape or line printer requires an additional six characters (the maximum possible is 8) to be allowed for. Exactly 8 additional characters must be allowed for to punch one card (making 88 all told). Furthermore each use of 1065 (end this record) to produce a blank line generates 8 characters to be held in the output well.
If the number of blocks is omitted, one block only is allotted, and if the whole output section is omitted
OUTPUT 0 ANY 1 BLOCK
is understood.
Output 0 Output 0 is used by the Supervisor and some compilers, but is still available for normal output from the program. It is on this output that such information as the number of instructions done in compiling and executing the program, the number of store blocks in use when the program ended, the number of blocks accumulated for each stream and other such items are printed. It if also used for fault information if the program goes wrong.
If no output 0 is mentioned in the output section of the job description
0 ANY 1 BLOCK
is assumed.
Similarly if no output stream is selected by the 1060 select output n extracode, any subsequent output will go to output O.
Atlas can readily accept two or more streams of output from a program for the same type of equipment, even though only one such equipment may exist. The streams are accumulated independently within the computer and eventually output one after another.
In fact all output is accumulated and none will be printed until all computing has ceased unless the extracode
1071 Break output n
is used. In this case all of the output stream n accumulated so far will be sent to the peripheral.
In either case the output information with programmer's number n will always be preceded by
Supervisory Number / Date. Time OUTPUT n (Title of Job)
The last line output gives the number of blocks sent to that output.
We are now in a position to give an example of a complete job description and for the sake of illustration we include the documents of the job.
JOB F64, J. Smith, I.C.T. London, METALS INPUT 0 F64, ANALYSIS PROGRAM 1 F64/A, IRON CONTENT 2 F64/B, COPPER CONTENT OUTPUT 0 LINE PRINTER 1 SEVEN HOLE PUNCH 3 BLOCKS ***Z Job Description |
COMPILER ABL F64, ANALYSIS PROGRAM ------- (Program) ------- ------- ***Z Program Document |
DATA F64/A, IRON CONTENT ----- (Data) ----- ----- ***Z Data 1 |
DATA F64/B,COPPER CONTENT ----- (Data) ----- ----- ***Z Data 2 |
Magnetic tapes are used with Atlas in two ways. Firstly, they are used by the Supervisor for such purposes as storing input and output. These are called System Tapes, and under normal circumstances need not concern the programmer at all. Their operation is quite automatic (see also section 10.12.3.)
Secondly, the programmer may use magnetic tapes in his program either:
The use of magnetic tapes for private input and output purposes will normally only be necessary if there is a very large amount of input or output. Full details of the way in which such tapes are employed are given in section 10.12.
The most common use of magnetic tapes is by extracodes within the program. The tapes required may be mounted on a tape mechanism (a deck) before running the program or during the actual execution.
The tapes mounted before the job begins must be listed in the job description. Normally the tapes that are to be mounted while the program is running are also listed in the job description. However, in programs which require a not-easily-predicted number of tapes it is possible to get tapes mounted which are not listed in the job description. (Sections 10.6.1 and 10.6.2. show how to list tapes in the job description. The extracodes for mounting tapes are described in Chapter 9.)
Full information on magnetic tapes can be found in chapter 9. However, for the sake of completeness some of the relevant facts are repeated here.
Each tape required for a job is specified in the job description by 2 lines of printing:- a heading, and a description. The heading is one of three:-
The description consists basically of the programmer's number (in the range 0 to 99), the tape serial number (preceded by *) and the title of the tape:
21 *F3699 F1000, LONDON SALES, 1963
This format applies with headings TAPE and TAPE NEW. TAPE COMMON is described later in this section.
The programmer's number, 21 in the above example, is the number by which the tape will be referred to in the program. If the tape is not required to be mounted before the job begins, but rather will be called for in the course of execution by a mount instruction (see Chapter 9), the programmer's number must be replaced by a tape reference letter consisting of a single letter:
D *F3700 F1000, LIVERPOOL SALES, 1962
The mount instruction will then refer to the tape by its tape reference letter and assign to it a programmer's number. In the example just given the tape title will consist of the 28 characters starting with F1000 and ending with 1962 (i.e., the two double spaces will have been replaced by single space).
The tape serial number, F3699 in the first example, is permanently associated with the tape. If possible, the Supervisor will call for the tape by its serial number, under which the tapes are filed; the tape number should therefore be included when possible even when its inclusion is not made obligatory by a particular Atlas installation. If it is omitted, the * is omitted also.
Thus in the example
19 T9824, WOLVERHAMPTON SALES; 1962
the title is the sequence of 31 characters starting with T and ending with 2.
The title in the description is the complete title stored in block 0 of the tape. Under a TAPE heading, this will be used to check that the correct tape has been mounted; under TAPE NEW, the title will be written to block 0 when the tape is mounted. In either case if the tape serial number is absent the Supervisor refers to the tape by the first 30 characters of its title.
The description for TAPE COMMON consists of a programmer's number or tape reference letter only.
TAPE COMMON 36
All the programmer's numbers and tape references in the job description must, of course, be different. A programmer's number must lie in the range 0 to 99 inclusive; a tape reference can be any letter.
The description may refer to logical channel K of the program; the effect is the same as in extracodes 1012 and 1013. This is done by adding .K to the programmer's number.
Thus:
21.3 *F3699 F1000 LONDON SALES
would request that the tape be mounted on a channel which can then be referred to in the program as channel 3. Tapes on different channels can be written to or read from simultaneously. The extracodes 1016 and 1012/1013 allow further tapes to be mounted on the same channel. (see Chapter 9.)
If a tape in the TAPE category requires file protection, i.e. no write permit ring and/or no write current, an asterisk should be written immediately before the description:
TAPE *1 *F3002 F1002 PARIS SALES
With file protection block 0 cannot be written to, so it will not be possible to change the title of such a tape. The program will be monitored if the 1014 (change title) extracode is used on a tape with file protection.
A collection of information may extend over several tapes although the programmer may wish to treat it as a single unit. Such a collection of tapes is called a file and only one of the tapes needs to be mounted at any one time. Each tape of a file is specified in the Job Description by a modified tape heading as follows:
TAPE/m n (tape serial number) (Title of tape)
where m is the number of the tape within the file, counting from 1 upwards. The programmer's number n will be the same for a11 m of this file. The final tape of the file is entered as
TAPE/m END n (tape serial number) ( Title of tape)
For example, suppose a file of information extends over three magnetic tapes which have respectively as serial numbers and titles in block 0
| Q1432 | F1012 | BIRMINGHAM SALES |
| Q1003 | F1012 | LONDON SALES |
| Q1100 | F1012 | MANCHESTER SALES |
These would be referred to in the Job Description as
TAPE/1 3 *Q1432 F1012 BIRMINGHAM SALES TAPE/2 3 *Q1003 F1012 LONDON SALES TAPE/3 3 *Q1100 F1012 MANCHESTER SALES
These tapes would then form file 3. The Birmingham tape alone would be mounted and allotted programmer's number 3, i.e. the same as the file number, before the job begins.
The remaining tapes are mounted as required by use of the extracode 1007 (mount next reel of file Ba and allocate number n to it). The tape sections on the second and subsequent reels are not numbered consecutively from the preceding reel, but start again at section 1.
As stated above the first tape of every file and each single tape that is given a programmer's number in the job description, will be mounted on separate decks before the start of the job. These decks will then be available to the programmer throughout the course of the job. He can by extracodes cause any of the original tapes to be unloaded and new ones, given a tape reference in the job description, to be mounted in their place.
If however, at some stage in the program he requires more decks than will be allocated to him in this fashion, he must mention the number he will need in the job description. This is done by writing:-
DECKS d
where d is the maximum number of mechanisms that will be in use at any one time. Thus a programmer requiring 3 tapes to be mounted at some stage in the program but only 1 at the beginning, would give the single tape a programmer' number, give the other 2 tapes a tape reference and put in his Job Description:-
DECKS 3
At those installations capable of handling half inch (IBM - compatible) magnetic tape, each tape required must be listed in the job description by means of a TAPE heading, followed on a new line by a description, consisting of the letters IBM, the programmer's number (in the range 0 to 126), or a tape reference letter, and the title of the tape:
TAPE IBM 42 WINCHESTER SALES TAPE IBM C WINCHESTER PURCHASES
Since each program on Atlas will normally be time sharing with others there can be no direct control of an individual program by an operator. Thus, there is no means by which an operator may tell if a faulty program has entered an infinite loop and is thereby wasting machine time.
To overcome this problem a time limit for a program is placed in the job description and if the program exceeds this limit it is stopped by the computer.
The limit appears in the job description as:-
COMPUTING p.q SECONDS (or MINUTES, or HOURS)
where p.q is a decimal number. This time is found by allowing two microseconds to each instruction obeyed and adding to this the expected compiling time. The ABL compiler obeys 1500 to 1700 instructions per instruction compiled.
Alternatively the limit on computing time may be specified as
COMPUTING m INSTRUCTIONS
but one instruction in this context means one instruction interrupt, equal to 2048 basic instructions obeyed. In fact the Supervisor actually times the program in terms of these units of 2048 instructions. Conversion from estimates given in terms of seconds, minutes or hours is made on the basis of 256 interrupts per second. Furthermore each multiplication instruction is counted as 2 instructions and each division instruction as 4.
For example a program requiring at most three million instructions, and having a compiling time of one and a half seconds would have the entry
COMPUTING 7.5 SECONDS
or
COMPUTING 1832 INSTRUCTIONS
If the computing time is less than 20 seconds this entry may be omitted completely from the job description. In this case a standard allowance of 20 seconds is made (5120 instruction interrupts).
If a program uses magnetic tapes it may be held up at some stage while a block of information is brought from tape to store, a time of 64. milliseconds. This wait can be eliminated in many cases by calling for a block 64 m.s. before it is needed, or by using a sufficiently large variable length transfer buffer or by resorting to branching. Some tape waiting time, however, may be inevitable and if it is likely to occur it must be shown in the job description.
This is done by the heading:-
EXECUTION p.q SECONDS (or MINUTES or HOURS)
where the time estimate in this case is found by adding an upper limit for the tape waiting time to the COMPUTING time.
For example, if the program quoted in 10.7.1 above was expected to be held up at most 200 times the job description would include:-
COMPUTING 7.5 SECONDS EXECUTION 20.3 SECONDS
If the EXECUTION section is omitted for the job description the execution time is taken to be the same as the computing time.
An. estimate of the amount of store needed by the program is also required by Atlas to prevent a faulty program from monopolising the store by producing a large amount of useless information. This is done by the job description entry
STORE s BLOCKS
where s is the maximum number of 512 word blocks used by the program at any one time. No distinction is made between core and drum store. The word BLOCKS may be omitted if desired.
This section may be omitted, if the store requirement is less than 32 blocks, in which case 32 blocks will be allocated and charged for. If the estimate for store is exceeded at any time the program is stopped by the computer. One extra block should be allowed for each input and output stream. The blocks used by the compiler are not counted unless the compiler is retained in the main store after the program is entered.
Separate sections of the job description may be listed in any order. For instance the OUTPUT section could precede the INPUT section, STORE could be followed by COMPUTING. However, to make it easier to read it is perhaps advisable to keep to a fixed order, for example the order in which the sections have been introduced. That is:-
INPUT OUTPUT MAGNCTIC TAPES (this is not an actual section heading) DECKS COMPUTING EXECUTION STORE
Throughout this chapter the sections of the job description have been written in capital or upper case letters since these are common to all forms of input. Changes of case are ignored however, and if the job description is on seven-hole tape, lower case letters could be used well.
Throughout the job description backspace is an illegal character.
A job description may be combined with a program to form one composite document. In this case the last item of the job description will be followed, not by an end of tape marker (***Z) but by the program heading:-
COMPILER (Program Language)
and then by the program itself. No further title will be necessary since the composite document takes the title of the job description. This will be the usual form taken be small programs which are only run once.
If this procedure is adopted, no input zero is mentioned in the INPUT section of the job description and the computer will compile and execute the program immediately following the job description. If there are no separate data documents the INPUT section may be omitted completely.
The examples given below illustrate these facilities.
Example 1
JOB F196, J. BLOGGS: NUMBER FREQUENCY INPUT 1 F196-TABULATED DATA OUTPUT 0 LINE PRINTER COMPILER ABL ------ ------ ------ ***Z Job Description/Program |
DATA F196-TABULATED DATA ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ***Z Data Document |
In this example the job required one other data document so the INPUT section must be included.
Example 2
JOB F324/1, W. BROWN, FERRANTI: PRIME NUMBERS OUTPUT 0 LINE PRINTER 1 CARD 2 BLOCKS COMPILER ABL ------ ------ ------ ***Z |
Here no further information is required and the INPUT section has been omitted.
It is also possible to combine the job description with a data document. This is particularly useful when the same program is to be run more than once using different data each time. In this case the INPUT section of the job description must include:-
SELF = n
where n is the programmer's number for the data which follows on the same document. The program itself is specified as the lowest numbered input stream, in the same way as when the job description is a separate document, and the last item of the job description is followed by the heading
DATA
and then the data itself. No title is needed to identify the data.
For example, consider a wage calculation carried out each month using one fixed set of data, say a list of P.A.Y.E. codes and a second set of data consisting of a list of hours worked by each member of the staff. The second set of data would, of course, vary from month to month and could be combined with the job description while using the same program and P.A.Y.E. code tapes.
The program and data documents would be:-
COMPILER ABL F900, WAGE CALCULATION ------ ------ (Program) ------ ***Z |
DATA F900, P.A.Y.E. CODES ------ ------ (Data) ------ ***Z Data Document |
The job description could then be combined with the second data document thus :-
JOB F900, J. SMITH LTD, WAGES OCTOBER 1964 INPUT 0 F900, WAGE CALCULATION 1 F900, P.A.Y.E. CODES SELF = 2 OUTPUT 0 LINE PRINTER 5000 LINES 1 CARD 2000 LINESS DATA ------ ------ (Data) ------ ***Z |
It may be easier, for the purposes of some programs, to treat several distinct paper tapes or stacks of cards as a single data document. Such a combination is called a data file. Each separate document is given a modified field data heading of the form
DATA/m
where m is the number of the document within the file. All documents composing the file have the same title and each is ended by a ***Z end-of-tape marker, or a 7,8 card punching. The last member of such a series must have the heading:-
DATA/m END
These documents may then be fed to the computer in any order and on any peripherals and the computer will combine them as required. In the INPUT section of the job description they will be referred to as one document with the title which each of them bears.
For example, if the data called U21, IRON CONTENT is on two distinct paper tapes these may be headed as follows:-
DATA/1 U21, IRON CONTENT ------ (First part of data) ------ ***Z |
DATA/2 END U21, IRON CONTENT ------ (Second part of data) ------ ***Z |
If the programmer wishes to refer to the file as input two the INPUT section of the job description will contain:-
2 U21, IRON CONTENT
So far in this chapter only the marker ***Z and the 7,8 punching have been considered as an end to a document. These are in fact the most common markers but there are others which are dealt with below.
On punched tape all the markers consist of *** followed by a single letter. On cards *** is not acceptable, and is replaced by punching the 7 and 8 positions in the first column of the card and the letter in the last column. The other 78 columns can contain anything at all. If the last column is blank, 7,8C is assumed.
***T indicates a temporary stop. When this marker is encounter the peripheral equipment is disengaged by the computer and when next engaged by the operator a continuation of the some document is read. Thus, if a document consists of two tapes the first part can be ended with a ***T. When this has been fed to the computer the second part is read by the same peripheral with no document heading and the computer will treat the two parts as one document.
If the document is data it is better to use the data file system given in 10.10.3 since the parts may then be fed to the computer in any order, on any peripheral.
On re-engaging a tape reader after ***A, T or Z, the next character is lost. On 5-track tape at least two figure shift characters should be punched following the marker, and before the next carriage return and line feed; on 7-track tape, the marker should be terminated by either upper case and newline, or two newlines.
Each of these markers indicates that a binary tape follows.
Note that if it is required to read to the physical end of a 7-track tape it is necessary to precede the ***B, E or F by ***P, as described below. If this is not done the tape may be rejected because of a spurious tape parity fault when the end of tape passes through the tape reader.
The marker ***B can also be used to read a fixed number of characters in binary. This is done by prefixing the marker by *n thus:-
*n***B
where n is the number of characters to be read. When the n tape or card characters have been read and stored, reading continues in internal code.
When reading punched cards an alternative way of causing the card to be read in binary is available. If the first column of a card is a standard code the contents of the card are converted to internal code. If the first column is not a standard code the card is assumed to be in binary and is stored as such. Naturally, after a 7,8 B, E or F has been read all cards are taken as binary regardless of their first column.
When reading 7-track paper tape in internal code or in binary the Supervisor normally checks the parity of each character (an odd number of holes for correct parity) and rejects the document if a character with wrong parity (blank tape for example) is encountered. This parity checking may be suppressed by punching ***P, but it will be restored again at the end of the given document. If the input is binary and ***P has been punched, wrong parity characters will be recorded as punched, but if the input is internal code they will be replaced by the fault character 7.7 (inner set).
Note that to suppress parity checking on binary input it is necessary for ***P to appear before ***B, E or F; ***P after ***B, E or F will not be recognised.
The same markers are available for use with cards, but with *** replaced by a 7,8 punching in the first column of the card and with the letter in the last column.
All the documents fed to peripherals for input are stored by the computer on a magnetic tape known as the system input tape. They are then brought into the core store as required. If a program has a large amount of input it may be in the programmer's interest, and in the interest of the efficiency of the computer, to transfer this input to a private tape before starting his program, instead of using the system input tape.
Output is normally accumulated on the system output tape before being sent to the required peripherals. If a program involves extensive output this may be written to a private magnetic tape instead, and later output upon requesting the Supervisor to do so by means of a special document fed in through one of the peripherals after the job is complete.
Both these facilities are dealt with in this section.
A document can be copied to a NEW magnetic tape by putting above the document heading the directive:-
COPY TAPE NEW *tape number tape title
The title specified will be written in section 0 of the new tape and the document following will be copied into section 1 onwards.
If it is required to store the document on a previously used tape (i.e. one which already has a title) the necessary heading is:-
COPY TAPE b *tape number tape title
Here b is the number of the tape block at which it is intended to begin copying the input.
When the copying process is complete the following information will be printed by the computer:-
*tape serial number/section/word title document.
The section and word indicate where the document is stored.
Example:
To copy the first data document of the job given in 10.5 to the NEW tape F1111 it would be fed to the peripheral in the form:-
COPY TAPE NEW *F1111 DATA FOR F64, METALS DATA F64/A, IRON CONTENT -------- (data) -------- -------- ***Z
The information output by the computer would be:-
*F1111/1/0 F64/A, IRON CONTENT
The second data document could be sent to section 7 onward of the same tape thus:-
COPY TAPE 7 *F1111 DATA FOR F64, METALS DATA F64/B, COPPER CONTENT -------- (data) -------- -------- ***Z
This could produce the output:-
*F1111/7/0 F64/B, COPPER CONTENT
In order to use documents copied to private tape, the tape must appear in the tape section of the job description in the usual way. In the INPUT section of the job description the sub-heading:-
i TAPE a/b/c
must appear before the title of the document. Here i is the input stream number, a is the programmer's number for the tape, b the block number, and c the word number within block b at which the document starts. Thus the job description to run the program of 10.5 could begin:
JOB F64, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF METALS INPUT 0 F64, ANALYSIS PROGRAM 1 TAPE 27/1/0 F64/ A, IRON CONTENT 2 TAPE 27/7/0 F64/B, COPPER CONTENT OUTPUT 0 LINE PRINTER 1 FIVE HOLE PUNCH 3 BLOCKS TAPE 27 *F1111 DATA FOR F64, METALS
As already explained, under normal circumstances documents are stored on system tapes before use. Among the information on output 0 will be the location of each document on tape. This will take the form:-
Sa/b/c
where Sa is the system tape number, and b, c are the block and word numbers of the first word of the document. Such tapes will be stored for a fixed period of time and if a document is required again within this time it may be called for direct from system tape, avoiding the use of a slow peripheral. This is done by including in the INPUT section
i TAPE Sa/b/c Title of document
where i is the programmer's number for the document.
For example, if a program called F74 FACTORISATION has been run and is stored at S7/2/411 it can be re-run with a data document called F74 LIST 3A by a job description as follows:-
JOB F74 FACTORISATION RUN 2 INPUT 0 TAPE S7/2/411 F74 FACTORISATION 1 F714 LIST 3A OUTPUT 1 LINE PRINTER ***Z
Only the job description and the data document would then need to be fed to peripherals. Note that no further reference to the system tape is required.
Large quantities of output may be written to a NEW magnetic tape by specifying in the OUTPUT section:-
OUTPUT i TAPE a/b/c type of equipment m BLOCKS
Here, i is the output stream number, a the programmer's number for the tape, b the block number, and c the word number where the copying is to start. The last line is as in section 10.4.2.
Thus if output 1 of the job in section 10.5 were 300 blocks instead of 3 the OUTPUT section could be written:-
OUTPUT 0 LINE PRINTER 1 TAPE 27/1/0 SEVEN HOLE PUNCH 300 BLOCKS
The tape must be specified in the usual way in the tape section of the job description:-
TAPE NEW 27 *F1111 F64, OUTPUT METALS
This will cause the NEW tape F1111 to be given the title F64, OUTPUT METALS and the output to be sent to this tape beginning at block 1.
If it is required to store the output on a previously used tape, the necessary entry in the OUTPUT section is the same, but the tape must be specified under the heading TAPE in the tape section.
The private tape can be printed by a steering tape consisting of:-
PRINT TAPE *tape serial number/tape title
if the whole tape is to be printed or
PRINT TAPE b/c *tape serial number/tape title
if one document is to be printed, from block b word c onwards.
In a job where different parts of a standard program are required to process different types of data, it may be more convenient if the data type is indicated in the job description rather than in the data or program. The parameter section in the job description provides for this, and is written in the form
PARAMETER *<number>
The number consists of up to eight octal digits, and is left justified. PARAMETER and the number may be on the same line, separated by one or more spaces. Alternative forms are:
Examples:
PARAMETER *00061247 PARAMETER *1060 PARAMETER *1060000
When the parameter section appears with other sections, the order of sections is immaterial; if omitted, the parameter is taken to be zero.
The value of the parameter may be read by program using the instruction
1140 4 0 S
which will set the half-word s' = parameter number (see section 12.9).